‘Variety of work’ draws mid-career movers into consulting

After Jo Andrews switched careers, his wife had a small problem. It had been easy to describe his previous job as a doctor, but management consultant she found more challenging. Ultimately, their son came up with “hospital whisperer”, which seemed to do the trick.

For Andrews himself, the job description was the least of his worries. Starting over at the age of 48, he initially felt “like a fish out of water”, he says. Despite joining CF (Carnall Farrar), a healthcare consulting firm, as a principal (one rung below partner), Andrews says he “knew very little about the practical delivery of consulting”.

It helped that he had done freelancing stints for a consultancy during time off from his medical job, had “bags of NHS experience” and was entering a niche consultancy in a sector he knew well.

“The transition, had I been going into the Big Four, would have been too sharp and jarring and I think I would have sunk,” he says. “Consultancy is fast-paced.”

Graduates have long seen consultancy as a springboard for other industries but those entering the profession from other sectors, either as generalists or experts, bring important perspectives, skills and contacts.

For Andrews, now partner and chief medical officer at CF, the switch initially came with a pay cut and was born from frustration and a desire to see “the world beyond health service”. He had spent more than two decades as a practising clinician before working as a consultant anaesthetist, a role he combined with senior management positions.

As a manager he had relished seeing through organisational changes and wanted to apply that more broadly. And he found he had a natural aptitude for the work: “My brain works in a hypothesis-solving consulting way.”

Tamzen Isacsson, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association, says that for consultancies, a mid-career hire from another sector is an opportunity to better understand client demand.

The person is likely to have a unique appreciation of what organisations in their sector require, and can therefore be “very effective at managing that client-consultant relationship”, she says. 

Jocelyn Wilkinson led responsibility strategy development at fashion group Burberry before moving to Boston Consulting Group to become an expert partner in sustainable fashion. Typically, the expert track is made up of internal candidates who have specialised, or lateral hires like her with 15 years of experience.

“I was very comfortable with the client problem,” says Wilkinson. She was able, for example, to relate a project in different ways to the customer’s legal and buying teams.

Janet Greenwood, a director in the Infrastructure Advisory Group at KPMG UK, who moved into consulting in her 40s after working in water and transport, agrees: “Coming from roles in client organisations, as I do, I feel able to understand their perspective and really enjoy bringing insights from across sectors to help resolve their knotty problems.”

It works both ways. Lisa Quest started her career at Oliver Wyman before switching to private equity because she wanted to experience investing. “Being on the other side of the fence, it was interesting to see how consultants worked,” she says.

It was a lesson that every experience you get in working life counts

But she ended up returning to the consultancy as head of UK and Ireland because she wanted to work with financial sector regulators on the reform agenda.

For those making the switch into consulting, one of the virtues is being able to move between different clients, gaining wider perspectives.

Nick South, a managing director at BCG and member of the firm’s global people and organisation practice, recalls his experience of joining the firm as a project leader in 2003, following an early career in politics and public affairs.

“Sometimes, things you think you’re going to love are not that interesting,” he says. But “the variety of work gives you a chance to explore”.

He thought he would be good at writing, for example, but it was a challenge at first. “Business thinking and writing, [is about] ‘what’s the hypothesis?’ I found it quite hard.”

But the switch gave South a fresh appreciation for his skills, such as knowing how to build a compelling narrative and manage stakeholder engagement. He found his contribution complemented the work of people whose strengths were, for example, in analytical modelling. “It was a lesson that every experience you get in working life counts,” he says.

Edward James, a teacher turned civil servant who is now a senior manager at Alba Partners, enjoys greater autonomy at his small consulting firm. In his previous roles “it was very much command and control”, he says. “Consulting is freer.”

Some, however, leave consulting because they find it incompatible with caring responsibilities.

Grace Ong, now an associate director at London Business School’s career centre, worked as a consultant for seven years, but found the travel demands of visiting clients difficult to juggle with two young children. Though she says that post-pandemic the industry has become more flexible, when she talks to students at LBS contemplating going into consultancy, she advises them to “shop around to understand the cultures of different firms”.

Since moving into consulting, Andrews often finds himself approached by former colleagues considering doing the same. He advises them to take part in a big change project at their organisation. “See if you can get involved . . . Even if there’s no consultancy support. It’s a good test of a lot of the consultancy skill set.”